From today, advertisers can start posting questions as a sponsored comment. The idea being that those questions will get a response from users, and in so doing that question becomes a part of the user’s news feed. In turn, the same question will be seen by more users, get more replies, and spread naturally across the network. As the comment thread grows the original sponsored comment turns into a sponsored story giving the brand potentially a lot of exposure.

The ad comments won’t be hard to spot by users. They will have “Sponsored” written above them and the questions are quite open and relate to a brand. For example, an Allstate Mayhem campaign will ask the question “What’s your mayhem?”

While Facebook and advertising agencies think this is a winner, it’s unclear how Facebook users will react to such questions. There’s nothing to show sponsoresd comments won’t get ignored, and the companies putting these up run the risk of their brand getting some very negative feedback as replies.

I can’t see this being very popular unless the advertisers come up with some clever comments. The worst example I have seen so far is Hallmark’s question which asks, “How do you make summertime a special occasion?” That just doesn’t work on a number of levels, and why would anyone take time to respond to it?

I’ve no doubt some advertisers will crack this and get some serious conversations going about specific events. If there’s a game on that day, related advertisers should be posting “Who do you think will win tonight, X or Y?” along with their brand picture and further branded comments when the thread gets going. Even so, surely users will notice they are being led a little and stop participating.

Speak Your Mind

Nerdgirl

I can see actually see this working for quite a few companies, but largely depending on what field they are in. Like Mathew said, however, it depends entirely on which questions they ask. If they are clever, though, asking questions that generate comments should be easy. The problem will be when the novelty has worn off and there are a glut of these sponsored questions, getting continually more lame as the good questions that generate discussion have already been used.